The WWE Championship is the most prestigious prize in all of wrestling. It’s the championship every wrestler wants to win so that they can prove they are the best in the business. But sometimes the title doesn’t go home with the right person.
Over the years there have been many WWE World Championship matches where the winner was, questionable to say the least. But in wrestling, hindsight is always 20/20 it seems.
Here are 5 times when the WWE World Championship belt should have changed hands, but didn’t.
#5 – CM Punk vs Ryback – Hell in a Cell 2012
Yup, we’re going there. Ryback should have beaten CM Punk for the WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell in 2012. Ryback was on fire going into this match and the “FEED ME MORE!” chants were at their peak. Not to mention he was undefeated leading up to this match.
The hype around Ryback was very real in the fall of 2012 and it looked like he was all set to become the WWE’s next big thing. The only problem was that CM Punk was having one hell of a run as a heel WWE Champion and WWE didn’t want to take the belt off of him which is understandable. But CM Punk was already a star and WWE had an opportunity to make Ryback a star with this one match. Unfortunately for Ryback, they didn’t pull the trigger.
In the weeks leading up to the match Chris Jericho event went on record saying he felt WWE could have made a big star with Ryback. He said the following on Busted Open Nation back in 2012:
“Who gives a shit about Punk’s title reign? It means nothing. Here is a chance to take a guy who people are getting behind. If he beats Punk at Hell in A Cell and after three hundred and thirty-seven days or whatever and Punk is finally beaten, people are going to start to take notice of this guy. Those who don’t watch Raw are going to tune in to see what’s going on. Ryback beats everybody. Ryback faces Rock at Royal Rumble. What happens if a couple of weeks before that something goes on with Ryback and Undertaker got involved in the Rock match? What if Rock wins the title and goes on to face Cena, as expected, and what if it’s Ryback vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania? What if Ryback beats Undertaker at WrestleMania? You have a new star for the next ten years to headline pay-per views and main events.”
After losing the match to CM Punk, Ryback’s undefeated streak was over and his momentum began to slow down big time. Back in 2012 he was at the top of the WWE. But nowadays Ryback is struggling to find his place on the card. It just goes to show how much of a difference one match can make.
#4 – Wade Barrett vs Randy Orton – Survivor Series 2010
When they made their shocking debut in 2010 Nexus was the biggest thing to hit the WWE in a long time. The group was a force to be reckoned with and it created a buzz around WWE programming that got a lot of people talking. But after a few bad booking decisions the group slowly fizzled out.
Nexus lost some momentum when they lost to Team WWE at SummerSlam 2010. But Wade Barrett continued to work in the main event and he even competed for the WWE Championship on several occasions. It looked like Barrett was being groomed to be a top level star but that turned out not to be the case.
Wade Barrett faced Randy Orton for the WWE Championship at Survivor Series 2010 and John Cena was the special referee for the match. John Cena was a member of the Nexus at the time so Barrett made the stipulation that if Orton won the match, Cena would be fired. Orton ended up winning the match and John Cena was fired. Then Orton lost his belt the next night whenThe Miz cashed in Money in the Bank on Raw.
After several months of WWE building up Wade Barrett as a main eventer it amounted to nothing. It’s hard not to wonder how different Wade Barrett’s WWE career would be right now if he had only won the big one at Survivor Series 2010. Especially now that Barrett is rumored to be leaving WWE in a few months.
#3 – Triple H vs Randy Orton – WrestleMania 25
Triple H and Randy Orton have been the best of friends and the most bitter of enemies throughout their careers. On the road to WrestleMania 25, Orton and Triple H found themselves wrapped up in a feud over the WWE Championship and things got intense. The two were on a collision course and they were set to collide in the WreslteMania main event.
Orton had spent most of the year building himself up as a ruthless heel and he was more than convincing. WWE was pushing Randy Orton to the moon during this time period and he truly looked unstoppable leading up to his match against Triple H.
Then the match happened and Triple H beat Randy Orton in one of the most anticlimactic main events in WrestleMania history. After spending an entire year pushing Randy Orton as the biggest heel in all of wrestling, WWE decided to have Orton lose the match and we were all left scratching our heads.
All the momentum Randy Orton had built up came to a screeching halt. Instead of getting his WrestleMania moment Orton was defeated. He ended up winning the belt in a six man tag team match at Backash which was the next pay-per-view. The title change was fun, but it would have been a lot cooler if it happened at WrestleMania 25.
#2 – Mark Henry vs John Cena – Money in the Bank 2015
How can we forget. The year was 2013. John Cena was on a roll as he had beaten The Rock at WrestleMania 29 and he had just finished up a program with Ryback. But Mark Henry was having a very different year. Henry had decided that he was going to hang up his boots and he made a big epic retirement speech on Raw.
During his retirement speech Mark Henry sucked the crowd in, and he had wrestling fans around the world eating from the palm of his hand. It was one of the greatest retirement speeches of all time and John Cena came out to the ring to be a part of it. Then suddenly, he snapped and hit John Cena with a World’s Strongest Slam. One of the greatest retirement speeches of all time quickly became one of the greatest swerves of all time.
Cena and Henry would go on to have a hard hitting match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view which Cena won. Nothing against Cena, but Henry should have taken the gold with this one. His performance during that retirement speech was epic and the buzz that he created should have propelled him to a title win.
#1 – Triple H vs Chris Jericho – Raw 4/17/2000
Ok so in this match the WWE Championship actually did change hands, but then it changed back again. Chris Jericho faced off against Triple H for the WWE Championship on an episode of Raw and he ended up defeating Hunter for the belt. Jericho became WWE Champion, the crowd went wild and everything was good.
Then Triple H argued that Earl Hebner counted too fast and got Hebner to reverse the decision. After winning the WWE Championship Chris Jericho was ordered to hand the belt back over and told that the title win didn’t count. It was a weird moment because it took us from the highest of highs and then sent us to the lowest of lows. WWE faked us out and they faked us out big time.
The move has been harshly criticized over the years and many people would agree that they should have just let Jericho keep the belt. But in the end everything turned out alright. Chris Jericho is now a 6 time World Champion. Still, we can’t but think this one should have stuck.
